M. K. Stuyter Books

Alternate Cover Edition can be found here. A Fire upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale.Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

Following the success of the stories that formed The Weapon Shops of Isher, van Vogt wrote the novel, The Weapon Makers, in 1943, to enlarge the story of human immortality, the conflict between a controlling government, The House of Isher, the mysterious Weapon Shops and man's place in the universe. The promise of the Weapon Shops' slogan, The Right to Buy Weapons is the Right to Be Free, is described thus: "Many of these weapons still carried the old names. “Guns” they were called, or “revolvers,” or “rifles,” but there the resemblance ended. These “guns” did not shoot bullets, they discharged energy in many forms and quantities. Some of them could kill or destroy at a thousand miles if necessary, and yet they were controlled by the same sensitive elements as the Weapon Shop door. Just as the door refused to open for police officers, Imperial soldiers or people unfriendly to the Shops, so these guns had been set to fire only in self-defense, and against certain animals during open season. They also had other special qualities, particularly as to defense and speed of operation."

From Dune to Rakis to Dune, the wheel turns full circle. From burning desert to green and fertile land and on again to burning desert ... the cycle is complete. The people of the Scattering are returning. Amongst them, mysterious and threatening, are the women who call themselves the Honoured Matres, adepts of an ecstatic cult. And on Rakis, become Dune, an ancient prophecy is fulfilled with the coming of the she-sheer, Sheeana ...

The epic that began with the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning classic DUNE continues ...

Deel 2 Van De Luisterrijke Heelalsage